Effect of Health Literacy Education on Self-Care in Pregnant Women: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: Prenatal care reduces the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The present study aimed to determine the effect of health literacy education on self-care in pregnant women. METHODS: The present randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted at two comprehensive health service centers in Pakdasht (Tehran province, Iran) during January-June 2016. Out of the ten comprehensive health service centers in the city, two centers were selected using a simple randomized sampling and randomly assigned to a control group and an intervention group. From each center, 40 pregnant women were recruited into the study. Dedicated questionnaires on self-care and health literacy during pregnancy were developed by the author as data collection tool. The validity and reliability of the questionnaires were confirmed using the test-retest reliability method and by the opinion of ten experts, respectively. The questionnaires were completed before the intervention, and at 1 and 2 months after the intervention. The intervention consisted of four 45-minute educational sessions and group counseling. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (version 16.0) with the independent t test, Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, and repeated measures ANOVA. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the groups before the intervention. However, 1 month after the intervention, there was a significant difference (P<0.001) in the mean scores of the total self-care and total health literacy between the control and intervention groups (65±6.23 versus 76.77±4.28 and 30.95±4.63 versus 40±3.54). Similarly, there was a significant difference (P<0.001) between the mean scores 2 months after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Intervention for the promotion of physical and mental self-care during pregnancy should emphasize on increasing health literacy in computational comprehension, reading comprehension, and behavior. Trial Registration Number: IRCT2017030415650N8